The Like - What I Say AndWhat I Mean

Mon 31st Oct, 2005 in Music Reviews

There’s a kinship here.  The Like is made up of girls…I’m a girl.  They graduated high school last year…I…uh…graduated high school last year. Okay, this could possibly be where the similarities end, but it was good while it lasted.

Girl bands are a touchy subject for me. I once told a girl that I didn’t like girl bands, well barely any. ’What about Atomic Kitten?’ she said. I was a little shocked. ’Atomic Kitten are a pop girl group who don’t play any instruments or write their own songs,’ I replied. ‘What about Delta Goodrem?’ Obviously this girl was an idiot.  ‘Delta Goodrem is one person, not a band. And no, I don’t like her.’  Finally she said ‘What about the girls in Freaky Friday?’ Was she serious? Yes. ‘The girls in Freaky Friday were actors who pretended to play their instruments.’

The Like got together in 2001 when best friends Charlotte Froom and Tennessee Jane Bunny Thomas (I know. Whoa. We were all thinking it. Indecisive parents) met Z Berg who provided the voice and the songs. They look every part the Los Angeles indie girls and play power pop with a touch of rock.

After graduating high school last year, the trio from Los Angeles signed to Geffen Records. They have previously released three EP’s independently. The Like’s single What I Say And What I Mean is lifted from the EP of the same name to be released in November.

What I Say And What I Mean doesn’t really offer anything more to the Indie pop/rock genre, and on a smaller level to female bands.  At no point does it really jump out and let go, even when the chorus lifts the volume of the songs it still seems tame. Z Berg’s vocals can often be compared to dare I say it, Avril Lavigne.

Their age is noticeable in the lyrics that seem to be lifted off any young teenage girls scribbling in a journal.

‘Never going back and forth
I’m only going forward
That’s what I keep saying
Never going back and forth
I’m only going back
That’s what I mean’

Maybe it doesn’t make sense. But I guess, don’t guys always say us guys always say one thing and mean another? ‘No I’m not angry’ translates into ‘How could you do this to me? I can’t believe you thought you could get away with this.’

I guess then it is appropriate since they are in fact young teenage girls. I have no doubt that many will relate to the trials and tribulations The Like’s lyrics portray. However, others, like me yearn for a lyrical maturity that can’t be found in What I Say And What I Mean.

Something haunts my dreams
Don’t know what it means                             

Okay, I’ve said what I said, here’s what I mean – I don’t think What I Say And What I Mean is definitive of The Like’s sound.  It’s a single, after all and they can often be deceiving.